


His Sister

by polverine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, the night the Potters find out about the McKinnons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:09:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23496559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polverine/pseuds/polverine
Summary: 'I cried all evening when I heard.'
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon & James Potter, Marlene McKinnon & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Marlene McKinnon
Comments: 12
Kudos: 46





	His Sister

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, I'm sorry.

_James,_

_The McKinnons are dead. You don’t have the cloak. Stay where you are._

_Sirius._

James stared at the parchment. He didn’t understand. He read the letter again, hoping that this time it would say something different. Sirius’s words stared back at him. He could hardly read his handwriting. The McKinnons were dead. Marlene was dead. 

“James, what’s wrong?” Lily’s voice sounded so far away, like she was speaking to him from above water. 

“Put Harry to bed.” He found himself choking, harsher than he had meant to. There was so much concern in her voice, but he needed a minute to himself.

“James—”

“Lily, please.” He tore his eyes away from the letter, and when they met her’s, he knew that she’d seen the pain in his face. He saw her arms shaking as she picked Harry up and carried him upstairs. 

Marlene was dead. 

All the air seemed to have left his lungs and he doubled over. He couldn’t breath, he was falling through nothingness, yet he could still feel the carpet under his bare feet. 

The McKinnons were gone…Mr and Mrs McKinnon who had loved him so much. Jeremy, uptight, boring, stuck-up Jeremy, he couldn’t remember ever liking him but he’d never wanted this. He was part of his family. And Nicole; she was fifteen years old — still a child. His little Nik Nak. Bright, bold, trouble-making Nicole who had fancied the pants off Sirius, much to all of their amusement.

He didn’t hear Lily come back downstairs, but she was there, rubbing circles onto back. It was the same way that she soothed Harry. Sirius’s letter was scrunched so tightly in his fist that he wasn’t sure how she managed to pull it free with out tearing the parchment. He tried to relax his hand but it didn’t seem to want to respond properly. 

_Marley was dead._

She was his sister. His sister in every way that truly mattered. There hadn’t been a single day that she hadn’t been a part of his life, there hadn’t been a single day that he hadn’t loved her. He didn’t know how to live without her, she’d always been there. For longer than he could remember, Marlene McKinnon had been in his life. There was a hollowness forming in his chest, a dark hole that was growing so fast and so large that he was sure it would consume him. The space that Marlene had once occupied. 

Lily read Sirius’s letter. The noise she made was inhuman. So loud and so raw that it tore through the room, and echoed inside James’s bones. James caught her around the waist just in time and she began to sob against his chest. He wanted to speak words of comfort but none came. How could he possibly put this into words? What could he possibly say to make Lily feel better when there was no better? 

At some point he lifted Lily into his arms and carried her to their bedroom, but he couldn’t remember deciding to do so. He wanted to cry too, surely it would make him feel better to cry, but the tears wouldn’t come. They seemed far beyond his grasp, this agony lay beyond the realm of tears.

Dawn was flooding through the window when Lily eventually fell asleep. He needed to go to Sirius. The thought of him sat alone with his grief was too unbearable…he’d just gone and bought a ring. But Sirius was right, he didn’t have the cloak. He should write to him, but he had no idea what to say.

Marlene McKinnon was dead. His brave, and brilliant, and beautiful sister. He’d lost people before…he’d lost his parents not long back. But this was different; Marlene was so alive, so indestructible…how did someone like Marley die at twenty-one? How could someone so full of life be ripped from the earth so suddenly—

The cat jumped up on the bed and started pawing at Lily. He wanted feeding. “Go away, Gary.” He muttered, nudging him back onto the floor with his foot. But the cat would not relent. He shifted carefully from underneath her, and proceeded downstairs, Gary trying to trip him up as he went. 

He was choking on the lump in his throat as he moved about the kitchen.

The McKinnons were dead.


End file.
